CC 115 Research Seminar: Writing the Self in Early Modern Europe, Spring 2009

Class site: Writing the Self in Early Modern Europe

Based on "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Researchers"

Researchers who are successful:

Browse the stacks

Library of Congress Call Numbers (detailed listing): In the Christopher Center, all resources are shelved using this system.

MICHEL de MONTAIGNE example

Class B: Philosphy. Psychology. Religion (detailed listing)
  Subclass B1-5802 Philosophy (General)
            B69-99 General works
            B108-5802 By period Including individual philosophers and schools of philosophy
               B108-708 Ancient
               B720-765 Medieval
               B770-785 Renaissance
                  B785.5 Cambridge companion to Montaigne
               B790-5802 Modern

Class D: World History and History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc. (detailed listing)
  Subclasss DC1-947 History of France
               DC1-20.5 General
               DC35-424 History
                  DC35-41 General
                  DC60-424 By period
                     DC60-109 Early and medieval to 1515
                     DC110-433 Modern, 1515
                        DC111-120 1515-1589. 16th century
                        DC120.8-130 1589-1715. Henri IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV

                        DC131-138 1715-1789. 18th century. Louis XV, Louis XVI

Class P: Languages and Literature (detailed listing)
  Subclass PQ1-3999 French literature
            PQ1-771 History and criticism
            PQ(781)-841) Folk literature
            PQ845 Juvenile literature
            PQ1100-1297 Collections
               PQ1100-1145 General
               PQ1160-1193 Poetry
               PQ1211-1241 Drama
               PQ1243-1297 Prose
            PQ1300-1595 Old French literature to ca. 1500/1550
               PQ1300-1391 Collections Individual authors and works
               PQ1411-1545 To 1350/1400
               PQ1551-1595 (14th-) 15th century (to ca. 1525)
            PQ1600-2726 Modern literature Individual authors
               PQ1600-1709 16th century
                  PQ1641.A1 Essais de Michel de Montaigne
                  PQ1642.E5 S36 Essays of Michel de Montaigne / translated and edited, M.A. Screech
               PQ1710-1935 17th century

SAMUEL PEPYS example

Class D: World History and History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc. (detailed listing)
  Subclass DA1-995 History of Great Britain
               DA10-18.2 British Empire. Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth
               DA20-690 England
                  DA129-592 By period
                     DA129-260 Early and medieval to 1485
                     DA140-199 Celts. Romans. Saxons. Danes. Normans
                     DA200-260 1154-1485. Angevins. Plantagenets. Lancaster-York
                     DA300-592 Modern, 1485
                        DA310-360 Tudors, 1485-1603
                        DA350-360 Elizabeth I, 1558-1603. Elizabethan age
                        DA385-398 Early Stuarts, 1603-1642
                        DA400-429 Civil War and Commonwealth, 1642-1660
                        DA430-463 Later Stuarts
                           DA447.P4 A4 The diary of Samuel Pepys
                        DA498-503 1714-1760

Class P: Languages and Literature (detailed listing)
  Subclass PR1-9680 English Literature

            PR161-478 By period
               PR402-478 Modern
                   PR431-(439) 17th century
                   PR441-(449) 18th century

            PR1490-1799 Anglo-Saxon literature
            PR1803-2165 Anglo-Norman period. Early English. Middle English.
            PR2199-3195 English renaissance (1500-1640)
            PR3291-3785 17th and 18th centuries (1640-1770)
               PR3618.P2 E4 Pepys himself
            PR3991-5990 19th century, 1770 / 1800-1890 / 1900

Develop an interesting thesis statement and research question

"Research questions and thesis statements are two sides of the same coin. A research question addresses a problem to be solved. A thesis statement is a tentative answer to a research question. It is tentative in that your written research project is going to have to test your thesis and hopefully show it to be correct. [25] A research paper seeks to use data from various sources to answer a question or to solve a problem. [178]
Badke, William. Research strategies: Finding your way through the information fog. 2008

In other words: What's your angle?

Build a foundation with reference & background information resources [tips]

Wondering how to answer the basic who, what, where, when, and why questions as your start your research? Reference resources can provide you with starting points to begin to answer those types of questions.

In the Christopher Center, print reference resources are found shelved on the Main (2nd) floor. Ask at the Reference Desk for assistance in locating resources in specific areas.

Chronology of world history D11 .C476 1994
The timetables of history : a historical linkage of people and events D11 .G78 2005
A Global encyclopedia of historical writing D13 .G47 1998
The age of wars of religion, 1000-1650 : an encyclopedia of global warfare and civilization D114 .N66 2006
Europe 1450 to 1789 : encyclopedia of the early modern world D209 .E97 2004

TIP: In the Reference area, browse within a country's call number subclass to see if there are more detailed resources (i.e., browse the "DA"s for England, the "DD"s for Germany, etc.). Try the same browsing technique within the appropriate literature section (the "P" class).

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

TIP: Search for archival holdings or focused digital collections of your authors' works. You might also try the "national libraries" of various countries to consider what digital collections they might offer.

Use bibliographies

Bibliographies are often found at the end of scholary articles, book chapters, and books themselves, citing works the author used or would recommend to those who seek more information.

Bibliographies are also found as individual books on very specific topics, such as these in the library collection:

The history of women in Germany from medieval times to the present : bibliography of English-language publications Christopher Ctr-3rd FL HQ1623 .C654 1990

British autobiographies; an annotated bibliography of British autobiographies published or written before 1951 Christopher Ctr-4th FL Z2027.A9 M3

Use the power options offered by electronic searching

Finding Books [off campus access] [tips]

GALILEO - VU Libraries Catalog resources available at VU libraries [more...]

  Subject Headings (use for Subject searching in Galileo):
  Search by "Author" to get the correct format of your author's name.
  Then use that as a "Subject" search. For example, Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592
  is the correct entry for Montaigne as both an author and as a subject.

WorldCat resources available for loan from other libraries worldwide [more...]

Finding Articles [off campus access] [tips]

World History, Language and Literature:

Historical Abstracts--Provides indexing on historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada). [about]

Biography Resource Center -- A comprehensive database of biographical information on more than 165,000 people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. [about]

MLA Bibliography--An English major's best friend. [about]

Project Muse--Full-text, online access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers. [about]

JSTOR (Journal Storage)--Full-text archive (back to volume 1 for most titles) of 117 important scholarly journals. [about]

Academic Search Premier--Multi-disciplinary database providing full text for more than 4,600 scholarly publications. [about]

AH Search--(Arts & Humanities Citation Index)--Indexes the world's leading arts and humanities journals. [about]

Already have a journal title? Use JournaLocator to determine if VU has a subscription.

Use abstracts and content notes to their advantage

Simply put: using abstracts saves you time. Many, if not all, electronic databases provide abstracts, or content notes, for the citations in your searching results' list. Abstracts and content notes help you to quickly determine if a citation is worth further investigation by providing you with a brief summary of the essential points of a book, article, or report.

Consult with the Writing Center

VU Writing Center http://www.valpo.edu/writingcenter/

Chicago manual of style, 15th ed.  Reference, Reserve, Stacks Z253 .U69 2003

Turabian, Kate. A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th ed. Ref. LB2369 .T8 2007

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